Update(May 2011): Founder and director of Massachusetts “Shock
School” resigns after being indicted on criminal charges. See below.

ABC News

UN
Calls Shock Treatment at
Mass.School 'Torture'

School for Special Needs Students Defends
Practice as Unharmful and Effective

By KATIE HINMAN and KIMBERLY BROWN

June 30, 2010—

It may look like
any leafy New England campus, but inside one
Massachusetts school for special needs
children, the method of teaching at work is anything but ordinary.

The
Boston-area's Judge
Rotenberg Center educates and treats enrollees ages 3 to adult, all of
whom are struggling with severe emotional, behavior, and psychiatric problems,
including autism-like disorders. And for about half of the 250 students here,
undesirable behavior means getting hooked up to a special machine and
administered an electric shock.

The skin shock
treatment, used only after both a court and the student's parents have
approved, has drawn criticism for years. But after the release of a recent
study by Mental Disability
Rights International, Rotenberg has come under the scrutiny of no less than
theUnited
Nations, which is calling the school's practices
"torture."

** ABC News just reported that a United Nations representative called JRC's use of pain on young people "torture,"
agreeing with a Mental Disability Rights International investigation,
click here:

http://3.ly/ABCRotenberg

** ACTION: Be sure to e-mail
Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick with
your strong but civil thoughts about what the UN rep called "torture."
HERE IS THE GOVERNOR'S WEB FORM:

http://3.ly/patrickdeval

** Psychiatric leader and Harvard
professor Alan A. Stone complained today to MindFreedom about the below
alert's use of the term "psychiatric torture." What do you
think? Read about his dialogue with MFI's David
Oaks on today's MFI blog entry here:

Director of Massachusetts “Shock School” Resigns After Being Indicted on
Criminal Charges

Watch theABC
Nightlinestory
or read theGuardian
of Londonarticle
on Israel’s Indictments
Washington,
DC — May 26, 2011 – Today,
we can celebrate a small victory. The director of the Judge Rotenberg
Center (JRC) of Massachusetts, which uses electric shocks to punish
children and young adults with disabilities, has resigned in the face of
criminal charges. Disability Rights International documented the use of
electric shock and long-term restraints at this facility in our reportTorture
not Treatmentpublished
last year.

Matthew Israel, founder and director of JRC, was charged with misleading
a grand jury and destroying evidence in relation to an incident in 2007
in which a prank phone call to the center from a person posing as an
employee led to two children with disabilities being given dozens of
electrical shocks for absolutely no reason. One of these children was
restrained and given 77 shocks over three hours.

Yesterday, Israel accepted a
court settlement which requires him to resign as director, and
sentences him to five years of probation. ”We believe that Dr. Israel
created a system and environment at the JRC that failed to prevent a
lapse of this magnitude,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha
Coakley, “Dr. Israel then attempted to destroy evidence of the events
and mislead investigators, and that conduct led to his indictments.”

Last year, Disability Rights International
filed an urgent
appealwith the United
Nations insisting that the practices at JRC are torture. The UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture agreed. The US Justice Department is also now
investigating the center. Regardless, Israel has continued to
shock children for behaviors as mild as speaking without permission.

We see Israel’s departure as an opportunity to end the abusive practice
of using electric shock as treatment for people with disabilities at JRC once
and for all. Israel was the creator and staunchest defender of this
theory of behavior control. We cannot allow another person like Israel
to be behind the switch at JRC and continue to subject children to
torture. It is time for this sick practice to end.

We encourage you to

write
your concerns to the Governor of Massachusetts,
Deval Patrick. JRC accepts children from around the country, and the
torture of children with disabilities is an international concern.
Please let your voice be heard. Disability Rights International will
continue to work with disability activists, legislators and the media,
to keep the pressure on JRC.

The Guardian Exposes the Truth about the Judge Rotenberg Center

Washington, DC — March 14, 2011 –Last
year, Disability Rights International published the report Torture
not Treatment:Electric
Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and
Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center.

The report resulted in a top United Nations human rights official
declaring that the school’s practice of shocking children to control
behavior was, in fact, torture–and a violation of the Convention against
Torture. The United Nations called on the United States government to
investigate the school.

On Saturday, an
article in The Guardian of Londonfollowed
up on this story. The Guardian visited the Judge Rotenberg Center and
interviewed parents and students whose lives have been affected by the
extreme punishments used on children and young adults at the school.

Laurie Ahern, President of Disability Rights International, was
interviewed for the article:
“It’s horrible that children and adults with disabilities are still, in
2011, being tortured through the use of electricity. We wouldn’t
tolerate that in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. We don’t do it in domestic
prisons any more. If your neighbour used a Taser on their children to
get them to behave, you’d have them arrested. They’d be picked up even
if they did it to their dog.”